So, I hate babyshowers. Like, really really hate them. I hate showers of all kinds, because you sit there and watch someone open presents and its awkward. So, when I said I was throw Karlie's shower, I knew I was going to do something really really fun. We kept (stupidly) pushing back the date, and then Karlie got put on bed rest in the hospital, and then the twins came about a month early, so instead of doing a standard babyshower, we decided to do a Sip-n-See, which is a southern tradition where you come and get something to drink and see the babies after they a born. And then, we had the date all set, and we realized it was May the 4th AKA Star Wars day. And I had already wanted to do a co-ed shower BEFORE the babies came, but logistically with everyone we know having kids, it wouldn'tve worked. So, we tried to figure out what to do! We came up with basically just having a party. I rented a bounce house (best $80 I have EVER spent), asked everyone to bring specific foods to help, pot-luck style, and provided Hutt-Dogs and Han-Burgers and desserts for everyone. Everyone brought their kids and everyone had a TON of fun, and the twins got boxes of diapers out of it! Win-Win-Win!
EDIT: I started out with the best-pinterest intentions for this party. I had all the ideas pinned, I was going to do everything myself and super adorable. And then I realized: Would people have any more fun if I stressed myself out over doing a decorate-you-own star wars cookie station, or would they have more fun if I decorated the entire garage? Would they are if I didn't spend money on streamers and if I only had one banner? I decided that the people I invited, my friends, would not care and I was right! I did a few super-simple things that made it look good, but if you could see the zoom-outs of the photo of the dessert table, you would see it it sitting on my parents big, blue, water storage drums. You would see that the backdrop didn't extend all the way down the wall and you can tell it is a garage! Pinterest is great for ideas, but awful for expectations! So just have a party and have fun! It doesn't have to be perfect! Everyone still told me how awesome and fun it was!
I was really really bad at taking photos, but here are a few I did get.
Okay, so these were the invites. They were adorable and my Mom helped me make them. She is the best.
This was the dessert table. Everything had a cute name, like the white chocolate popcorn was Millenium Falcorn and the Oreo cake was Obi-Wan Oreos (and Bantha blue milk was added later). We also had Skywalker Strawberry bread, Dark Side nutella muffins (or something like that...) and molded Star-Wars chocolates shaped like Darth Vader, Han Solo in Carbonite and a starship. It was all SUPER easy dessert food. I chose on purpose to not do a cake so I wouldn't add that stress on top of everything else, and it was a very very good choice. My favorite part about this table is the banner (which said happy birthday before I got my hands on it) and their names which was just cut out paper but looked great against the black backdrop! We also had another table FULL of non-dessert food, but it was pot-lucked and everyone got there at different times so I didn't get a great picture. By the way, thanks to everyone who brought stuff! We had SO much GREAT food that would have been impossible for me to do on my own! I basically got all my ideas off of pinterest for the food, or looked up words that had the same first letter of whatever people wanted to bring.
This shows the bounce house and how everyone just sat around and chatted. We had it in our front yard because my Dad has bees in the back and we didn't want that to be an issue, AND we happen to have a massive front yard. We also did this so we could use the garage for food so nothing flew away in the breeze! It was perfect because the kids all jumped and were in a contained area and the parents could basically do very little supervision without their kids wreaking havok. I also had a simple bubble table set up and side-walk chalk, but those weren't really used too much, mostly b/c I had them on the other side of the driveway and no one was over there b/c there is no shade on that side!
This is Tyler (dad) hitting the piñata after all the kids had a go. It was a super cheap one from a Mexican party store in town and I think everyone liked it. ...
...as evidenced by the swarm of kids hoarding candy! (Sorry parents!)
This is my sweet friend Lucy, who had one of the popcicles that looked (kindof) like light sabers. Later in the evening, she took of her shirt and ate another (bigger) one and it was the funniest thing ever.
This is Oliver. We got them these cute buttons that said Jedi-Master.... and this is the only pic I have of the babies from that day b/c as I said, I was the worst at taking photos! But I really just wanted to sit back and enjoy the party instead of playing photographer. But the babies were there and cute and well-loved.
And to close us off, here are kids beating each other with pool-noodle light sabers in the bounce house. As an afterthought, this probably wasn't the BEST idea from a safety standpoint, but the kids loved it and apparently a bunch of them still play with the light sabers! Haha.
Overall, I would say it was a success! I wish we had toured the babies around a bit more, but their family was in town for their baby blessing at church the next day and they (understandably) got dibbs! I am just glad we got to have a fun day and the boys got their first taste of a Sabrina-thrown party! :-)
The End.
